Piolets or the like (picks, piolet-hammers, etc.) which are used particularly for mountaineering, are formed of a cylindrical handle with a circular or elliptical cross-section, whose lower end is provided with a metallic tip and whose upper end is provided with a "T" shaped head. The front part of this head, or "pike", is intended to penetrate deeply to the ice and has a rectangular cross-section which grows thinner at its free fringed end. On the piolet, the rear part of the "T" shaped head, or "peen", is intended to cut the ice. This peen is almost planar and it is located perpendicularly to the handle of the piolet. On the piolet-hammers (or ice-axes) this peen is replaced by a parallelepipedic hammer-head.
The aforesaid "T" shaped head is provided with fastening flaps by which the head is mounted and kept on the handle of the piolet.
Up to now, such a head is made according either of the following methods:
According to a first method, the pike, the peen and the fastening flaps are forged together, all in one piece, into a metallic lump.
According to a second method, the pike and the peen are separately punched out of a thick plate of metal, after which the peen and the fastening flaps are welded upon the pike.
According to a third method, the peen is punched out of a plate and then shaped in a press-machine. The fastening flaps then may be obtained by the folding of parts of the peen, and the whole mounted upon the rear end of a cast solid pike and the fastening flaps secured on the handle.
Though those well known methods produce strongly built heads of piolets, they are expensive and require manual methods which need forging and/or welding operations, and cannot to be automated.